Manage the five best free tools of Microsoft hyper-V

How can we make improvements on a free product? In addition, why do we need to add more free products so that related technologies can be implemented more smoothly?

Microsoft's hyper-V provides an acceptable virtualization technology in almost no charge, so hyper-V is widely recognized in big and small it work environments. If you already have a hardware and Windows server license, you only need to perform simple operations to create a hyper-V working environment, instead of spending other costs.

However, like any other free solution, hyper-V has some minor features in the local management interface. One way to solve these limitations is to add third-party products that can undertake specific work. In this article, I will mainly introduce five tools that can enhance the experience of running hyper-v. With hyper-V's high-performance virtualization technology, these zero-cost capabilities can even create enterprise-level systems for the most challenging it work environments.

One of the best free tools: offline Virtual Machine server tools

I mentioned in the article "potential danger of hyper-V virtualization" that shutting down a virtual machine may only affect some files on the disk. However, if the shutdown takes too long, simply starting a virtual machine may bring unpatched security vulnerabilities to the system.

One way to patch those machines is to use Microsoft's offline Virtual Machine server tool. In current version 2.0.1, this solution propeller integrates the system center Virtual Machine Manager (scvmm: System Center Virtual Machine manager) and Windows Server Update Service or configmgr, patches infrastructure for virtual machines that can automatically restore hibernation, trigger Software Update cycles, shut down virtual machines, and return to the databaseProgram. Pretty good, right?

From Microsoft HomepageDownload offline Virtual Machine Service Tools for free.

Best free tool 2: hyperv_mon

I have mentioned more than once that the biggest problem of virtualization technology is performance. The problem is that Microsoft's performance testing tool, perfmon, is not easy to use. In fact, if you want to get some valid parameters from perfmon, you need to do more work than expected.

This is why many third parties develop peripheral interfaces. These peripheral interfaces are used to organize and analyze perfmon data to better reflect virtualization performance. Tim managan's hyperv_mon is such a tool. This tool arranges the performance parameters of multiple virtual machines to provide a graphical representation of the performance. The table originally maintained for the virtual environment can be seen in a view.

Download the hyperv mon Tool.

Best free tool 3: Microsoft's hyper-V Evaluation and Planning Toolkit

The performance of virtual machines is important not only for virtualization management, but also for physical machines that need to be migrated for any workloads. No matter how the manufacturer guarantees, some physical machines cannot simply become a good virtualization bearer platform. If these machines are added to a virtual work environment, these machines consume more resources than they provide.

One way to make informed decisions for p2v (physical-to-virtual) migration to get effective data is to use Microsoft's hyper-V Evaluation and Planning toolbox. Map integrates various tools for planning Microsoft product deployment to monitor the system performance in the physical work environment. By observing the performance data of one day, one week, or one month, then identify whether the physical server can be used as a suitable virtualization bearer platform. The final report of Map provides details about server performance, candidate platforms, and servers that can be located on the same virtual host, this information helps reasonably start the virtual work environment and allocate Virtual Machine Sets for each host to optimize resource usage.

Download microsoft's hyper-V Evaluation and Planning toolkit from Microsoft technet.

Best Free 4: starwind V2V Converter

Microsoft's Virtual Machine monitor (vmm: Virtual Machine monitor) uses its own p2v and V2V tools. You can use vmm to convert a physical machine to a virtual machine, or to a hyper-V format from a vmwarevm. The conversion process is irreversible. If you want to use an external method to implement bidirectional conversion of virtual machines, you can only use the V2V converter of starwind software.

The company is most famous for providing a cluster hyper-V Working EnvironmentFree iSCSI target softwareNow, we are going further on the external attachment market of virtualization technology to provide this free V2V tool. The starwind V2V converter converts a virtual machine from the vmwarevirtual machine disk format (vmdk: Virtual Machine disk format) to the Microsoft and Citrix virtual hard disks (vhd: virtual hard disk) format, or vice versa. This tool copies data by sector and converts the disk file to the source image without modification.

DownloadStarwind V2V Converter.

5 of the best free tools: Citrix hyper-V essentials, lite version

Citrix did not provide free software in the past, but in recent months Citrix has changed the price of its virtual products. After announcing that its main virtualization product xenserver is free of charge, Citrix recently made a bet by announcing the limited edition of The virtualization management product Citrix hyper-V essential.

Why is this product used in the hyper-V management tool set? In short, Citrix is famous for its high-end management system. Nowadays, management programs in virtualization software are becoming more and more assimilation, and many people in the industry will ask "How to best manage virtual infrastructure ?" Citrix provides enterprise-level solutions to organize existing systems and improve management workflows.

Citrix essential edition will support two servers, which need to connect to the same storage array. The Citrix storagelink Technology for iSCSI and Fiber Channel storage enhances the storage capability.

DownloadCitrix hyper-V essential TiAl.

Not only free, but also free

As IT vendors promote high virtualization efficiency while ensuring low costs, virtualization will soon enter the commercial stage. With these five free tools and other similar products, all kinds of organizations will join Virtualization in the near future.